Railroad seeks water station in Painted Post

Water would be shipped to Pa. for use in fracking

Apr. 25, 2011

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A Pennsylvania company wants to put the long-vacant Ingersoll-Rand foundry in Painted Post to use again.

The Myles Group of Exton, Pa., which owns the Wellsboro and Corning Railroad, recently presented an informal proposal to Painted Post village officials to buy surplus water from the village for hydraulic fracturing in natural gas exploration.

Under the plan, which was presented to the village planning board, the Myles Group would lease the foundry site and use it to fill tanker cars with water that would then be shipped to drilling sites in Pennsylvania.

The Myles Group has been approved by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission to remove up to 500,000 gallons a day from the village system if Painted Post officials concur, said Marcia Weber, Planning Board chairwoman.

Another undisclosed company has received permission from the commission to withdraw another 500,000 gallons a day, Weber said.

"It's village land, so we are checking on whether that requires normal site plan review or whether it is waived because it's village property," she said. "We are recommending that in either case, the full review is undertaken by the village and by the Planning Board.

"They would pump (water) there on-site and fill tanker cars and ship it by rail out of the foundry site. There is some track there now," Weber said. "They'd have to upgrade it for their purposes. They would lease it from the village and then buy the water. They are only using half of the foundry property. It's a prime location because of its proximity to I-86 and (future) I-99."

The Ingersoll-Rand foundry has been closed for more than two decades and has not been used for any other purpose since.

Village Public Works Superintendent Larry Smith told the Planning Board that the water system can spare up to 3 million gallons a day and still meet the demand of all of its users, Weber said.

Tom Myles of the Myles Group told the Planning Board that the operation could be worth $2.6 million a year to the village, Weber said.

Myles could not be reached for comment Monday.

The revenue from the sale of water would be a benefit to the financiallystrapped village, but it couldn't be used for general purposes, according to Painted Post Mayor Roswell Crozier.

"People really don't understand; water revenue has nothing to do with taxes. It's a separate part of the budget," Crozier said. "By state law, those systems must be self-supporting. Revenue from that must be used in those systems."